June 6th, 2022
Woke up at 6:30 a.m. even though I had an 8:00 alarm set. So I stayed in bed and dozed in and out till about 7:30 a.m. Decided at that point to just get up and take a shower.
Good morning from Delhi (3:39)
Looked up the hotel restaurants and the lobby place had an included breakfast buffet, so around 8:00 a.m. I went down and grabbed a table to eat something.
I was seated over in a corner and while I was getting food another guy was seated at table next to me. (both at 2 seat tables). We said a simple good morning and both ate our breakfast.
I cannot recall what prompted it, but we eventually started a conversation. He was a manager for a development team for a company (ABB) that works in the energy sector I believe. He lived in San Jose, but travels a lot including to India, which was where he was also born and raised. He had left 20 years back after his schooling to work.
Was a fun conversation about various things and eventually he asked to connect on LinkedIn, so I helped him find my profile on his phone. I could not get online with mine, so will have to accept his request later when I return home as I doubt I will use LinkedIn while in India at any point.
We both finished eating about the same time. He had a car coming to pick him up to go to some meetings in the city. He had arrived a day early though and spent the previous day doing a trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, which he said cost him about $130 dollars for the full day. I might have to look into doing something like that at the end of my trip when I am back in Delhi for a few days.
Afterwards I went back to my room and packed up everything. I then got the journal caught up until it was time for me to check out of the room at 11:00 a.m.
I had bumped into Robert, another rider from Australia that I am friends with on FB earlier, so I knew that he and a few others would be meeting in the lobby around 11:00 a.m. as well.
The meeting with the tour leaders was at 12:30 p.m., so figured I would hang out in the bar till then.
While waiting for the elevator on my floor I met up with Simon, another rider from Australia. He had saw my riding boots and all the gear bags and inquired if I was on the trip. We had conversed a few times on Facebook in the group that was setup for our trip. He decided to join me in the bar after we checked out.
Once we met in the bar he wanted to get a drink. He ordered a beer and got me a Coke (I still lacked any local money at this time) and we talked for a bit. After a bit Robert found us (I had posted on the FB group that we were in the bar) but he was looking to wait someplace other than the bar to avoid the temptation to have a drink this early.
Simon went off to have a smoke after a bit and when he returned he said that a large group of riders was in the enclosed patio area of the restaurant. So we both took a quick visit to the toilet while the other watched our gear, then went over to the restaurant patio where nearly everyone else was already gathered.
Met the 3 Austrians, but did not talk much with them. Found Robert there and also met Milos, another FB group member I had talked with in the weeks prior to the trip. He introduced himself to Simon and I.
Had another Coke (guess they were being paid for by the tour) and then we all just sat around and talked about random stuff. Andy introduced himself and he was also with Mark, another FB friend that I had spoken to a few times about the trip in the months leading up to it.
Met most the others, but did not get much background on them at this time.
The final rider arrived at last. Jerry is an American, but lives in Thailand. Shortly after that Rahul, the owner of the tour company arrived with his team. He talked a little about the trip and had us all go round and introduce ourselves to the group and handed out maps printed on a heavy vinyl to carry with us of the route. At this time I found out that the 3rd American on the trip was also from Arizona (Prescott).
We then had lunch and continued talking while we all started to take our turn sitting down with Rahul to take care of the final money payments and getting copies of documents to him.
Once we were all done with the official stuff, we gathered our stuff and went outside to load up the 6 taxi's that would take us to Manali. There were 3 riders in each taxi plus the tour team in another.
I picked the cab with Mark and Andy (who were friends back in the UK where they were from).
Once all the bags were loaded, filling the back end of the Toyota Innova (a very common taxi vehicle here) we got going with our driver Amit. (He was just the taxi driver and was not part of the tour company). We all regrouped on the side of the road outside the hotel grounds and then left for Manali. It was roughly 3:00 p.m.
First part was to get out of Delhi. We went round and round and I was totally lost with no idea what direction we were going in. Even the main highways were more like side streets back home with businesses along them and side streets turning off them. And of course the traffic was crazy and not moving very fast.
We eventually came to some better roads that moved us along quickly, but took a lot of slow roads to get to those.
We did get to see lots of Delhi though along those slow roads. There were good spots, older spots and a few badly rundown spots. Lots of interesting looking buildings and vehicles and even cows walking down the highway medians and shoulders!
Once on the faster moving roads we started to make good time toward our eventual turn into the mountains. We would see, pass or be passed by a few of the other cars often, but we also seemed to be on our own a bit too.
Traffic is just crazy. No logic or pattern to it and no apparent rules of the road except bigger has the right of way in most cases.
At one point we pulled over to the side of the road along the highway near our turn toward the mountains. Guess he was meeting his brother to trade some merchandise they had for each other though at first we thought he was saying his brother was coming with us as part of the team? His English was very limited. Once he arrived though we figured out what they were doing and then of course they had to take selfies with the 3 of us tourists!
We took the time waiting to handle some roadside bladder relief in the tangle of bushes along the road. Welcome to India!
Got back on the road after about 10 minutes and then turned off the main highway after a short while and drove into this run down sketchy looking area to get tea from some road side stop the driver knew of.
It was now dark and a thick haze was everywhere. (Mostly dust, but also smoke from burning trash? Was not sure).
We parked along the road with all these tents and tin shacks, each selling food, beverages and snacks. India's version of a convenience store? Had seen them in other areas too. [We would continue to see them, was quite normal, especially in the lesser developed regions to offer travelers a means to eat/drink and even rest in many of them.]
Lots of people were standing or walking around the area as well. The driver walked down a few stalls to get the tea while the 3 of us stood outside the car talking and watching the other people, some which were a bit scary looking, and also the random traffic of trucks, busses and other heavy equipment coming into and out of the buildings along the road behind all the food spots.
Driver came back with small cups of Masala tea which were really good (and HOT!)
Got back into the car and drove a bit more and things were starting to get a bit scary on the road. The darkness and haze made visibility limited, but the chaos on the road was the same, except now on a 2 lane road with no central divider, so on coming cars were in both lanes and lots of cars and trucks, bikes and even people walking with no lights or anything to alert you to their presence!
Our driver actually did a pretty good job navigating this mess though, even though there were a few close calls on some passing.
We eventually met up with the rest of the cars and then headed to our dinner stop for the night, a bit of a late dinner as it was already after 8:00 p.m.
We stopped and ate at a Sikh vegetarian restaurant and we all ordered a standard dinner that was traditional in this type of place. It consisted of a large platter of various sauces and toppings to be eaten with the naan bread they would bring to the table and keep filled. It was actually all pretty good, only one topping I was not thrilled with, rest were at least good if not great.
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| Dinner platter |
Once we finished eating many of us had to hunt down the toilets (which were outside and in another part of the building...several businesses, including a non-beef serving Burger King, in this mall like complex sharing the single, but very large restroom facility) and then sat or stood around talking amongst ourselves and watching the locals (many who were watching us or coming up to ask questions or get photos). A few split off to walk around as well.
We were taking an approximately 3 hour dinner break so we could eat and also allow our taxi drivers some time to rest a bit. Most of us soon ended up sitting at a group of tables in the main plaza area. A few of the guys found there was a bar up on the 2nd floor and spent about 30 minutes there having a drink.
We eventually loaded ourselves back into the taxi's and started our drive into the foothills of the Himalayas just before midnight.
As the day is changing, will continue the story in the next entry.
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